Maryknoll's Kamalu Kamakawiwoole elevates for a shot against the Buffanblu. She scored a career-high 19 points in the Spartans' win. CJ Caraang | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Tue, Nov 29, 2016 @ Maryknoll

---

Punahou

39

Maryknoll

57

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (5-9, 10-10)	7	5	12	15	39
Maryknoll (13-1, 28-3)	17	13	11	16	57

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

K. Kamakawiwoole 19 pts  3 3pm

K. Kandiah 24 pts  5 3pm

I. Cravens 6 tot  3 off  3 def

K. Kandiah 8 tot  8 def

R. Omori 3 ast

E. Uyeda 3 ast

MAKIKI — The Punahou girls basketball team had to pass through a downpour to get to rival Maryknoll's gymnasium Tuesday night.

Too bad it was raining inside too.

Maryknoll knocked down 10 3-pointers and sophomore Kamalu Kamakawiwoole poured in a career-high 19 points as the Spartans blew past Punahou, 57-39, in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I contest at Tony Sellitto Court at Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium.

The Spartans, the two-time defending ILH champions, improved to 2-0 and moved into first place atop the league standings. Punahou dropped to 1-1 in ILH D1 play.

"Good win for us, not only for the fact that we won and we took an early lead in the ILH (standings), but I liked the way that we played," said Maryknoll coach Chico Furtado. "We won because we played closer to what our capabilities are. They shot the ball much better than we did against Iolani (last Saturday) and we defended pretty well against a veteran team."

Kamakawiwoole, a 5-foot-9 swingman, knocked down eight of her 14 shot attempts and was 3-for-6 from deep in the win. She also pulled down six rebounds and had two assists in the best performance of her prep career so far.

"I was feeling it in my warmups," she said. "My job was mostly to spread the (defense) out and hold down the offense. Take the ball when I'm open and shoot my 3s to help the team out."

Joining Kamakawiwoole in double figures was Chayse Milne, who made four of her five attempts from behind the arc to finish with 14 points. Rhianne Omori, Kodee Viena and Siera Murobayashi also knocked down triples for the Spartans.

With 6-foot-1 Maryknoll center Isabella Cravens demanding attention down low and their twin towers Tyra Moe and Vae Malufau gone to graduation, the Buffanblu employed a 2-3 zone defense for most of the night.

The Spartans took advantage of this and were patient in their half court sets, finding the open man in the pockets of the zone defense. When the Buffanblu did use a man-to-man defense, Maryknoll used a series of off-ball screens to free up its shooters. The end result saw the Spartans convert on 10 of their 22 attempts from 3-point land, good for a 45.5 percent clip.

"It was like deer in the headlights," said Punahou coach Liz Kam. "Defensively it wasn't one of our best nights. Credit to Maryknoll, they were hitting a lot of their shots. They got shooters and they took advantage of it and they hit shots.

"We tell our girls all the time ‘defense is effort', and that's something we can control and something we need to work on and clean up."

Ball movement was also important as the Spartans assisted on 16 of their 23 made baskets. Eight different players registered assists for Maryknoll.

"I like the fact that they shared the ball," said Furtado. "It's a pretty unselfish group."

While Maryknoll got multiple players involved, the only one that was really making plays for Punahou was senior guard Kamaile Kandiah, who had a game-high 24 points with eight rebounds. The next highest scorer for the Buffanblu only had four points.

"We need to have a balanced attack, we need to stick together and we have to play together if we (want) to be successful," said Kam.

Punahou stayed in the game for the first couple minutes, but began to fall behind after Kamakawiwoole knocked down a trey to give Maryknoll a 8-5 lead. The Buffanblu cut it to one after a Gabriella Puaa basket under the backboard, but the Spartans closed out the quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 17-7 lead into the second quarter.

Defense started to take over in the second stanza as Maryknoll held Punahou to 1-for-12 shooting from the field in the period to take a 30-12 advantage at the break.. The one allowed basket that the Buffanblu scored on in the quarter was on a Kandiah 3-pointer in the opening possession.

"That second quarter was as close to a complete quarter that we played this year," said Furtado. "That's why we were up 18."

Punahou cut the Spartans' lead down to 12 early in the fourth quarter, but could not slow down Maryknoll's attack in the long run. The Spartans led by as many as 23 points in the final period of play.

Both teams don't play a league contest till next week, but could meet up in a non-league affair later this weekend. The Spartans and Buffanblu are two of eight teams participating in Kaiser's Cougar Preseason Showdown, which begins Thursday.